Environmental sensing using millimeter wave sensor for extreme conditions

The aim of this work is to investigate rotational millimeter wave sensor for autonomous navigation in extreme environmental and weather conditions. The proposed research describes the development and deployment of efficient millimeter wave radar system for mobile robotics as a primary range sensor to allow for localization and mapping. In fact, in highly demanding weather conditions, conventional sensors for outdoor navigation, like ultrasound, lasers and optical sensors have known limitations, that may be at least overcome using the Millimeter Wave Radars. Specifically, our contribution focuses on the extraction of range and velocity information from the data collected by rotating the antennas of a millimeter wave radar at different speed profiles: 360° rps, 180° rps and 36° rps. Experimental validation was performed in foggy conditions to test the robustness of the proposed sensor in a realistic scenario, showing that distances can be acquired in the range of 1 to 40m, at a suitable rate.